HW 42 - Revised Essay

Birth Malpractice Cover-Up in the Documentary Challenging Medical Practices of Birth?

The Business of Being Born has been called "the best film ever made on birth" by Ina May Gaskin (People), has been viewed by thousands, catapulted natural birth into the mainstream media (MSNBC, Goldman), and has helped to inspire a movement of women who see birth as a potentially natural, healthy, and beautiful experience (Levine). The movie draws on important revelation tropes - painting the dominant practices and establishment figures as (to some extent) self-interested and dangerous bullies, identifying prophets who offer a re-interpretation of the standard narrative, demonstrating the possibility of a new order of nature, truth, and love.

I think its a great film, and I've watched it at least 9x in the last three years. And even though I'm aware of the limitations of complex story-telling in films intended for large audiences, and I'm teaching a course partly to help people see that simple narratives "Can't Be That Simple" I felt a little stunned by the realization that a significant medical cover-up during the birth of the film-maker's own child may have been perpetuated in a film devoted to uncovering the lies of the medical model of birth.

The Film-Maker Gives Birth to a Baby and a Film That Includes the Birth of Her Baby
The director of the film, Abby Epstein, decided to include footage of her own pregnancy and birth in "Business of Being Born" despite some reservations (Women). At a check-up around the 30th week of pregnancy with her obstetrician, Dr. Jacques Moritz, the doctor tells Epstein that the fetus inside her is growing normally and that he supports her decision to work with a midwife. Moritz also shares his confusion about the role that Epstein's chosen midwife - Cara Muhlhahn, the midwife whose work the movie documents - will assign to him in his role as "back up". But the obstetrician doesn't focus on the issue of unclear responsibility - sensitive to Epstein's desire for reassurance and enthusiasm rather than complex reservations. Significantly, Dr. Moritz serves as a "legitimizer" for the mother-centered birth practices advocated in the movie.

Later in the film Epstein's friend Ricki Lake mentions persistently that she feels that Epstein's pregnant belly is surprisingly small. Epstein enters early labor with the fetus in breech position and after some time Muhlhahn cancels the hoped-for home birth and the film shows an all-too-stereotypical distressed taxi ride to the hospital around 2am resulting in an emergency cesarean-section by Dr. Moritz. After a scene showing Epstein's distressed and undersized baby Matteo, Epstein and Moritz are shown debriefing in the same office where he had reassured her about the baby's growth. The obstetrician explains that the fetus had become growth-restricted. Epstein asks why this important problem had not been diagnosed and Moritz responded that this situation was (paraphrasing) "Notoriously that its' diagnosed with a still birth. In fact, its usually diagnosed that way."

Moritz's answer apparently satisfies Epstein and the issue of the non-diagnosis receives no further notice for the remaining few minutes of the movie. However, Moritz's answer was not accurate, and the decision of the film-maker to include this inaccurate answer raises some interesting and possibly disturbing artistic/political/ethical questions about this revelation film.

Cover-Up?

Moritz's answer was not accurate - most cases of "Intra-Uterine Growth Restriction" (IUGR) do not result in stillbirth - one analyst produced data that 86% survive (Ross). Further, diagnosis of IUGR by practitioners while the fetus remains in the womb is common, through documenting an "Estimated Fetal Weight" (EFW) and comparing that estimate to normal growth curves for fetal development. Practitioners estimate fetal weight and development using a variety of tools and techniques including sequential sonography and fundal height measurement. And screening for IUGR, and associated head/body asymmetry can be implemented using a variety of Doppler scans, fluid measurements, and 3D ultrasonography (Ross). Some screening techniques are able to identify significantly higher than the majority of cases of IUGR in the fetus (Ross). Diagnosing Epstein's fetal IUGR would be entirely common and expected outcome of quality prenatal care, although the medical literature consulted didn't offer data on the percentage of cases that are accurately diagnosed prenatally.

It surprises me that Dr. Moritz, a respected obstetrician, offered inaccurate medical information regarding the prenatal care offered to the film-maker whose partner was filming the interaction. One could speculate that the obstetrician wanted to avoid pointing a blaming finger at the practitioner responsible for the prenatal care - the midwife Cara Muhlhahn. Lying to protect a colleague is a widely discussed dynamic in medicine (Wagner 23) and I can imagine that lying to protect a midwife would feel like a generous act of solidarity for this obstetrician, reportedly the son of a midwife himself.

To me, the more disturbing issue was that the film-maker included this disinformation unchallenged in the film, falsely representing one of the key aspects of her own baby's birth and obscuring a possible blunder by the midwife that most (but not all) of the film uncritically valorized.

Why the Cover-Up?
That Esptein was aware of the inaccuracy of Moritz's explanation is not certain. However, some facts seem to indicate it - the repeated inclusion of Lake's concerns which seem to indicate an awareness that the IUGR should have been diagnosed earlier, the inclusion of a blatant narcissistic interaction by Muhlhahn directly after the birth, and the fact that Epstein chose not to work with Muhlhahn again for her next birth. I've emailed Epstein and been told to expect a response within the next few days regarding this issue. However, lacking that response now, I'd like to address a few possible reasons why Epstein might have chosen to mislead her audience.
Epstein switched providers from OB Moritz to Midwife Muhlhahn at an unusually late date in her pregnancy, around the 30th week, with week 36 often considered the beginning of "full term". In an American Certified Nurse Midwives interview, Muhlhahn answered the question,

"Were you Abby’s prenatal care provider?"
Not until very late in the game. She was undecided about her choice of birth site and provider until after 28 weeks. Her early prenatal care was done by the physician in the film, Dr. Moritz. I had two prenatal visits with Abby and another scheduled two or three days after she went into preterm labor at 35 weeks. At 32 weeks, I knew the baby was breech" (Peaceful Parenting).

Thus, Epstein may not have wanted to depict Muhlhahn as responsible for inadequate prenatal care when Epstein had convinced her at an unusually late date to provide care for the pregnancy and birth.

A second explanation for the misleading of the audience is that explaining all of the above, including necessary background in IUGR diagnosis, might have distracted the audience from the central issue of the film - the desirability of mother-centered birth practices. However, this explanation fails to explain why the false information would have been included rather than an accurate non-distracting explanation of the diagnostic failure.

A third possible explanation for an intentional choice to mislead the audience could be that the film-maker was aware of the American tendency to vilify medical practitioners who make a mistake. In one interview Epstein discusses the importance of reducing midwives vulnerability to malpractice lawsuits (Levine). In an article critical of the practice of Muhlhahn, Epstein is quoted as saying,

"She’ll put herself on the line way more than most people, like taking on a birth that’s a little more high risk that most midwives wouldn’t take,” says Abby Epstein, BOBB’s director. “It’s not that she’s a cowboy. It’s because she wants to serve these couples that say, ‘I trust my body. I believe in this process.’ She puts her ass on the line in a huge way every time she kind of steps out of bounds to help somebody" (Goldman).

Thus, it may be that a sense of both loyalty to a respected pioneer as well as an antipathy to a common tendency of blaming practitioners led Epstein to partially disguise her midwife's possible blunder.

But another reason for a possible cover-up would be that an honest depiction of the IUGR issue might have harmed Epstein's political mission for the film - encouraging women to be less fearful of birth and to offer more consideration to working with midwives. Her consideration of the political impact of the film, and consultation with midwives regarding that impact can be seen in this quote,

" It was really the midwives who were most discouraged about the ending at first, but over time they also came to see the film was only going to benefit them. The final scene in no way detracts from their overall depiction in the film.”

That the final scene doesn't "detract" from midwives may be true, but only because the final scene misrepresents the experience documented.

Or what if there wasn't any significant blunder? Muhlhahn's treatment of a question referencing her possible mistake reveals defensiveness and evasiveness. After mentioning that she only had two prenatal visits with Epstein - thereby implying that she didn't have a lot of chances to catch the IUGR - Muhlhahn minimized the significance of the emergency.

"Although Abby’s baby boy arrives safely, the physician says that Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) occurred. Do you want to talk about that?
In the film it appears like the baby was starving, everybody missed it, and the doctor saved the day. But the situation was misconstrued because of a critical detail that was lost during the emergency transfer. The physician who received the transfer was under the impression that the baby was 40 weeks. Abby’s baby was actually born at 35 ½ weeks. A 3 lbs, 5 ounces baby at 40 weeks would have been much more serious than at 35 ½ weeks" (Peaceful Parenting)

Muhlhahn's statement seems bizarre to me, in an interview that would be read by trained nurse-midwives (although maybe not anymore, the interview seems to have been removed from the ACNM site, perhaps as a result of Muhlhahn's ongoing controversies?). She correctly states that the birthweight would have been more troubling if the baby had 40 weeks of gestation. However, even with 35.5 weeks of gestation the baby was OFF the growth curve - smaller than even the smallest percentile of babies and approximately 30% smaller than necessary to be classified as IUGR (Peleg, Olsen). Thus her statement misleads readers of the significance of the undiagnosed medical condition and attempts to minimize the scale of her possible blunder. Its as if a doctor was asked about not diagnosing a tumor the size of a baseball near the kidney and answered, "It would have been worse if it had been the size of a softball."

Does the Cover-Up Matter?
I believe the misleading of the audience regarding the IUGR of the film-maker's baby significantly harms the credibility of the film, particularly from the perspective of trained medical practitioners. A friend taught me the phrase, "We gain credibility in drops, but we lose it in buckets." Thus, even a small lie tends to undermine the trust gained in a hundred truthful interactions. I've spoken with and heard of several more medical practitioners who identified the misrepresentation of the non-diagnosis of the IUGR as a significant inaccuracy in the film, that diminished its credibility.

Further, the misleading of the audience regarding an important aspect of the film-maker's own birth reveals that the film does not dare to explore the complexities of prenatal care. This possible midwife blunder could have been used as an opportunity to explore the fallibility of all experts, to address the fact that midwives and obstetricians all make mistakes and that solutions and ameliorations to the issue of medical error should be sought. Instead the film focuses its attack on the medicalization of birth without any acknowledgement of the mistakes made by midwives. While I feel sympathetic to the argument that all sides shouldn't receive equal time in a presentation focused on critiquing an overwhelmingly dominant social practice I feel also that addressing these complexities, even in passing, offers significant benefits to the quality of the discourse and to potential outcomes of that discourse.

Thus, at this point and not having yet read Ms. Epstein's response to my queries, I conclude that including medical misinformation that obscured a case of significant midwife malpractice damaged the credibility and outcomes of an otherwise outstanding and paradigm-shifting film. I also conclude that we must critically investigate the claims and evidence of ESPECIALLY the people we most agree with, in order to avoid entrapment in dishonest and/or oversimplified representations of our situation.

Works Consulted:

Alexander, Peter. Perils of Homebirth. MSNBC video. 9/11/2009. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32795933#32795933. Accessed 4/5/2011.

Anonymous. "Interview with Business of Being Born Midwife - Cara Muhlhahn". Peaceful Parenting. http://www.drmomma.org/2008_06_01_archive.html. Accessed 4/5/2011.

Anonymous. "Interview with Abby Epstein, Director of The Business of Being Born". Women & Hollywood. http://womenandhollywood.blogspot.com/2008/02/interview-with-abby-epstein-director-of.html. 2/20/2008. Accessed 4/3/2011.

Bier, Catherine. "The Benefits Of The Business Of Being Born". Giving Birth Naturally. http://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/business-of-being-born.html. Accessed 4/5/2011.

Goldman, Andrew. "Extreme Birth." New York Magazine. 3/22/2009. http://nymag.com/news/features/55500/. Accessed 4/5/2011.

Levine, Amy. "Interview with Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein on the Business of Being Born". Pregnancy & Baby. http://pregnancyandbaby.sheknows.com/pregnancy/baby/Interview-with-Ricki-Lake-and-Abby-Epstein-on-The-Business-of-Being-Born-6329.htm. Accessed 4/5/2011.

Olsen, Irene E. PhD, RD, LDNa,b, Sue A. Groveman, MSa, M. Louise Lawson, PhDc, Reese H. Clark, MDd, Babette S. Zemel, PhD. New Intrauterine Growth Curves Based on United States Data. Pediatrics. Published online January 25, 2010. PEDIATRICS Vol. 125 No. 2 February 2010, pp. e214-e224 (doi:10.1542/peds.2009-0913). http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/125/2/e214. Accessed 4/7/2011.

PELEG, DAVID M.D., COLLEEN M. KENNEDY, M.D.,and STEPHEN K. HUNTER, M.D., PH.D.Intrauterine Growth Restriction: Identification and Management. American Family Physician. August 1998. http://www.aafp.org/afp/980800ap/peleg.html. Accessed 4/7/2011.

Ross, Michael G et al. "Fetal Growth Restriction." Medscape Reference. Updated 2/9/2011. Accessed 4/7/2011.

Wagner, Marsden. Business of Being Born. U of CA Press. 2008.

HW 42 - Academic Research - In process

INTRO

The Business of Being Born has been called "the best birth movie ever made" by Ina May Gaskin, has been viewed by X viewers, and has helped to inspire a movement of women who see birth as a potentially natural, healthy, and beautiful experience (SOURCE 1, SOURCE 2, SOURCE 3). The movie draws on important revelation tropes - painting the dominant practices and establishment figures as (to some extent) self-interested and dangerous bullies, identifying prophets who offer a re-interpretation of the standard narrative, demonstrating the possibility of a new order of nature, truth, and love.

I think its a great film, and I've watched it at least 9x in the last three years. And even though I'm aware of the limitations of complex story-telling in films intended for large audiences, and I'm teaching a course partly to help people see that simple narratives "Can't Be That Simple" I felt a little stunned by the realization that a significant medical cover-up may have been perpetuated in a film devoted to uncovering the lies of the medical model of birth.

OUTLINE

SUMMARIZING THE KEY ISSUE -

SCENE 1 Growth on track

SCENE 2 Ricki "you look so small"

SCENE 3 Emergency C-Section

SCENE 4 Cover-up

SCENE 5 Narcissistic Nurse Midwife

ANALYSIS

why scene 4 is a cover up

RAISING QUESTIONS & Addressing them

raising questions - significance, filmmaker intent, midwife response, mother's perspective, OB perspective, public point of view

Conclusion

DId the filmmakers make the right decision artistically/ethically/politically?

What does this dilemma teach us about birthing? About studying complex issues? About trust, evidence, and life?

Research Questions from all students

Sharpening Research Questions:

Main Idea: DIfferent sorts of questions lead to different outcomes. Some of the outcomes include;
Defining - What are the criteria of ...? How does a person know ...?
Listing - What are the main factors in ...? What functions ....?
Exploring - Why do we ....? What is considered ...?
Explaining - How do .... contribute to ....?
Proving - What strategies have demonstrated effectiveness ...?

All of these sorts of questions matter - can be powerful - can be crucial. But if you're trying to write an academic paper around some of them its like trying to juggle bunny rabbits.

Personal essay writing is often best focused on exploring or defining. Poems can be good for listing. Academic papers - of a quasi-scientific or exhibition type should generally be based on explaining or proving something.

1:
Strong:
Devin - How do the qualities of poor neighborhoods contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic?

Medium:
Richard Y - What are our needs that we attempt to satisfy through varies relationships?"
Evan: How does a household where both parents are working effect the mentality of the child in both childhood and teenage/young adulthood? OR Is a household where one or both parents work better or worse for child involved, will it affect the future aspirations and occupations the children involved?
Sandy - What are the primary factors that strengthen and weaken families?
Alicia: Is it true that an individual needs to accept themselves for who they are as a person before they are ready to have another person try to fall in love with them?
Arden: What is the criteria of becoming a good friend?
Julie: Why do we as people feel the need to be accepted by others? Why cant people just accept others for who they really are?
Aja -At waht point does a Friend become family? what is that tipping point?

None:
Andy
Max
Brittani
Esther D
Richie S
John
Dinorah
Will
Quinn
Bao Lin

2:
Strong:
Yu-Xi - How do we fall in romantic love? What hormones/areas of our brain are activated to indicate this?
Beatrice - What are the primary reasons that some families have revolving scapegoats and scapegoats at all? How does the group determine who will be the scapegoat?
Kate - Are there proven strategies for increasing positive feelings and reducing negative drama in friendships?
Rachel - How accurate are the online dating and compatibility matches in creating a lasting relationship, and how often do relationships come about through the use of an online dating website?

Medium:
Henry - What separates friends and acquaintances and what makes them become the other?
Charles - How do interpersonal emotional connections affect friendship?
Jia Min - On what requirements and boundaries does a friend have to cross in order to promote to a best friend?
Amber - What are some reasons people tend to be more concerned about the approval of strangers instead of family?
Maggie Z - What emotional needs can be met by people we see daily?

None:
Vincent
Marco
Carrie
Lauren
Cindy
Jake
Sam K
Na Lin
Brendan S
Sam R
Amanda
Remy SB


3:
Strong:
Francesca - What is considered a healthy vs unhealthy relationship in today's society? what is the specific criteria?


Medium:
Jacara - What are the barriers of relationships?
Ean - what do we expect from family, friends and other relationships.
Carol - What are some affects expectations have on our relationships?
Matt S - how do we determine who we love, and do we determine love based on the way that we love ourselves?
Elvis - What is more important in the end, friends or family?
Steph - How do some relationships fall apart once a label is given to them while other relationships stay strong?
Amon - What are the factors that contribute to the segregation of friends and acquaintances between peers?
Katherine - What is the human connection that bonds certain people and not others?
Leah - What are the factors that cause a new relationship to end based on human needs for terminology?

None:
Dylan
Norra
Juan
Abraham
Mohammed
Kevin
Jace
Ali Jo
Russell
Ian
Hannah
Ellen
Victor
Kareem

4.
Strong:
Sam - Is marriage counseling an effective remedy, in most cases, for the primary causes of divorce, and if so, how?"

Medium:
Matt B:

• Do We Take For Granted The Relationships In Our Life's?

• Is Their A Such Thing As Love ?

• Why Do Most Marriages Fail?

• Are We Our Parents?

• Is Life Made Up Of Miracles Or Accidents ?

• Are We Simply Living To Die Or Dieing To Live ?

• Who Determines Who We Are ?

• Is Their True Happiness And If So What Is It ?

Yurelis: What makes a good friend?
Bryanna - Why do we need love? Why do we push away love? Why do we love in different ways? Why do we stop loving? And more but I didn't know yet.
Christian - What is the importance of frequent interactions with adults, teachers, friends and strangers?
Jules - what are the primary reasons people cheat?
Jessica C - my topic will be about family and the different roles in the mediate family.
Brandon - Why do psychologists have the right to be looked at as more mentally stable people than others in society? What makes them think that they know 100% how to think, live life, etc.?
Stephanie A - Is there an emotional and physiological difference between kids growing up with both parents and kids growing up in single homes ?
Chloe - What do you need in order to find or maintain a long lasting friendship?
-What are the main components of a long lasting friendship?
or
What do you need in order maintain close communication between family members? (might focus on siblings or specific people in family)


None:
Yasmin P
Yazmin J
Conor
Larche
Maxiel
Anias
Jin
Victor
Elias
Chris
Michelle
Kiana
Granit

Don't forget to define your terms (DYT, nananana).

Test Scores - HW 54

my test scores.

INTJ

INTJs are most likely to find interesting and satisfying those careers that make use of their depth of concentration, their grasp of possibilities, their use of logic and analysis, and their ability to organize. INTJs are very often found in academic, scientific, theoretical, and technical positions that require prolonged periods of solitary concentration and tough-minded analysis. Their task orientation, powers of abstraction, perseverance, and willingness to look at situations or systems in creative ways often draw them to careers where they pursue the implementation of their inner vision. Their trust in their own insights, their faith that they see into the true meaning behind events, and their willingness to bring their insights into practical real-world application often communicate to others an impression of confidence, competence and drive. Though these qualities often lead to their being placed in executive and management positions, INTJs are intensely individualistic and resist being bound to routine.

For INTJs the job search is an opportunity to use their creativity, their skills in synthesizing information, and their ability to approach the market in an organized and strategic fashion. They can usually envision many career possibilities, and can selectively target and pursue job options with their potential ability to be task-oriented. Their competence, analytical skills and insight are usually communicated to others during the job search. Potential drawbacks for INTJs in the job search include unrealistic expectations for a job, inaction, failure to communicate warmth or diplomacy in interactions with others, and inattention to details of jobs or of the job search. Under stress, INTJs may develop a potentially adversarial attitude toward the world of work, and may get caught up in less relevant details. They may find it helpful to analyze their experience objectively as they see the need to be more realistic in their expectations about jobs and to be more flexible in dealing with the details of the job search.

Examples of careers often chosen by INTJs include law, engineering, architecture, physical and life sciences, psychology and social science, computer science, writing/editing, careers in the arts, and consulting.

Careers in which INTJs are found much less often tend to be characterized by a great deal of nurturing work, relationship-oriented work, or work that requires practical, routinized production or delivery of services. They are also found much less in careers that depend predominantly on hands-on work, attention to detail, and/or adherence to structures imposed by others.

Big Five Test Results

Extroversion	||||||||||	36%
Orderliness	||||||||||||||||||	72%
Emotional Stability	||||||||||||||||||	76%
Accommodation	||||||||||||	46%
Inquisitiveness	||||||||||||||||||	78%

The Big Five is currently the most accepted personality model in the scientific community. The Big Five emerged from the work of multiple independent scientists/researchers starting in the 1950s who using different techniques obtained similar results. Those results were that there are five distinct personality traits/dimensions. Here are your results on each dimension:

Extroversion results were moderately low which suggests you are reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and private.

Orderliness results were high which suggests you are overly organized, neat, structured and restrained at the expense too often of flexibility, variety, spontaneity, and fun.

Emotional Stability results were high which suggests you are very relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Accommodation results were medium which suggests you are moderately kind natured, trusting, and helpful while still maintaining your own interests.

Inquisitiveness results were high which suggests you are very intellectual, curious, imaginative but possibly not very practical.

Your Global5/SLOAN type is RCOEI
Your Primary type is Inquisitive

My analysis - I feel a little split between my "identity" and how I tend to feel. I think these scores tend to capture my "secret" feelings more than my public persona. I suspect that a lot of my identity - how I usually act - relatively generous, social, authentic, brave, caring - evolved out of imitation of my father, the novels I read, and to navigate around issues in my childhood. I'm not saying its not real. And I suspect that a lot of how I feel tends to be the shadow of that identity - the internal exhaustion to the external show. I'm not saying that's not real either. I believe that if I were to act less social, less forthcoming, less caring that would also feel wrong - like I was abandoning my post - not being a good person in the world.

This also relates to a central issue in my life - being exhausted by all the social interactions necessary to be a teacher - especially of 95 students at once. I've been able to do a good job as a teacher - despite the difficulty of always being "on show" - by getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and otherwise taking care of myself and allowing myself to recuperate. But it's not totally easy.

On the other hand, being a teacher has been a great way to make a living while making a difference for others. Its been a good career for me to continue trying to figure out aspects of the world, to be creative, to work with complicated problems to solve that matter, to be able to share insights and spark others' insights.

Final School Day 2009 - Ideas for 2009-2010

Ideas from different sections on topics/aspects-of-life/issues that would be good to explore using some of the skills and techniques we've developed in the last year.

Internet & Identity
Open discussions - Getting out of classroom
Masks - Projects - Online aspects
World of Lies - How do we know what is true? What do we do with lies we've seen through?
Self/Society
Perceptions of others - social roles
Collapse Pt 2
Our rights - rights - gay rights
What is a genuine person? Masks?

Conformity Unknowingly
Life itself
Living in the U.S. - our advantages
Education & Schooling
Historical Perspective on Preferences and how they change and how they ultimately appear insignificant (dress, music, etc)
Collapse Pt 2
Personal Health & Feelings
Personal Experiences
What is Meaningful? Outside and real life are better places to ask than the classroom
Music
Hidden messages of ads
Life is a big lie
Virtual Worlds
At home environments
Reading Techniques
Life is a game? Why is this perspective so common?

School
Animal Cruelty
Manufacturing
Religion
Marketing & Advertising
American Dream
Ocean Life (Sardines)
Sex
Race & Culture
Double Standards & Misogyny & Sex
Hip Hop
Life is a game
Technology
Fashion
Touching & Feelings
Listening & Communication
Music
Celebrity & Fame
Trends, Fads, & Conformity
Acceptability of Queerness
Public Transportation
Sex After Prom

American Way of Music
Education
Media & Advertising
Sleep
Critiques of Socialism
Sports
Clothing companies
Transportation
Crime & Punishment
Justice
News - Free Press?
Communication & Expressing Thoughts
Literature
Sex
Hands-on - Outside classroom world - reduce length of units

Bold indicates topics I can easily imagine building enjoyable and powerful units from.

Comments

Ali Jo,

Thanks for posting this debate. This is one of the cool possibilities that the blog format opens up, but you're one of the first to use it.

I think Omnivore's Dilemma will also inform the debate. I guess I have just 3 contributions to make;

1. You have to decide if you are arguing on "natural" or on "moral". You seem to go back and forth. The anthropological stuff I've seen shows that most human food is plant food but that most cultures (including indigenous cultures like Australian aborigines, Calusa in Florida, and !Kung in Africa) also highly value animal flesh. Like you say, just because lots of humans do it, and other animals also do, doesn't mean its right. But it does seem hard to argue that it isn't natural.

2. I agree with your distrust of overconsumption of soy. This year I quit being a vegan (after 15 years) partly around this. Rather than soy-yogurt 3-4x a week it seemed better to do pasture raised goat yogurt.

3. I think the strongest arguments in favor of vegetarianism/veganism are a) health - vegetarians live longer and healthier on average. You can see this, perhaps, in your own experience. But I don't think this argument can overcome Dylan's point about eating occasional and decently-raised animal food. The second major argument in favor of veganism (and less so in vegetarianism) is the non-exploitation argument - slavery is wrong and enslaving other animals to serve as food sources is morally dubious - perhaps even when the slaves are treated relatively well.

This was the main reason I became vegan - I saw it as a daily practice of resisting a culture that is based fundamentally on domination of the weak by the strong.

The argument can be nuanced though - are clams also exploited - are they really qualitatively more "there and aware" than a sunflower? If there are ways of eating that are more ecologically sustainable (pasture raised eggs, goat yogurt, perhaps even chicken flesh, beef) and more ecologically beautiful (wild honey versus sugar cane monocultures) what should our priorities be?

Food #6 - Response to Pollan

For this assignment please respond briefly to Michael Pollan's argument, in the first few pages of Omnivore's Dilemma, that we as a culture lack a stable food culture like the Italians or French, are obsessed with health, are confused and anxious about food, and therefore easily succumb to various expert-directed food fads.

What food experts do you and your family pay attention to - scientists, journalists, chefs, commercials on tv, doctors, nutritionists, health officials, book authors?

I find Michael Pollan's argument that much of the US lacks a stable food culture to be overstated. Certainly it is true that there are fads (Atkins diets), "trendy foods" (acai), and a superficiality of everday eating. But, on the one hand, isn't this precisely a sort of food culture with an emphasis on the "new"? And on the other hand isn't much of US food culture pretty stable - burger joints, french fries, pizzas, sodas? And on the 3rd paw doesn't Pollan's argument mainly apply to a selective-college-educated segment of the population who actually cares what the scientists are currently recommending while most of the continent continues crunching Cheez-Doodles?

It does, however (final paw), apply to me. I read books about food (including a lot before and a few after Pollan's) and think about different ways of eating (I've read manifestos and had conversations with friends who advocated vegan, vegetarian, paleolithic, sustainable, freegan, and raw diets). I switched to grapeseed and olive and flax and coconut oils at different times on being told by "experts" that one or the other were healthier (now a mix of all them). I was vegan for 16 years - largely based on the arguments and insights of anti-cruelty and anti-exploitation food philosophers - and recently added pasture raised eggs and pasture raised goat yogurt on the arguments of the sustainability philosophers (Gene Logsdon, Michael Pollan, a few others) and my experience seeing animals raised humanely at a commune in Virginia. I've been eating a lot of flax seed and DHA on reading that it might be a particular health issue for vegans and think I even see a benefit from it.

So I would have to say that I lack a stable food culture - that the corporate food culture I grew up in is insane and that abandoning it was crucial to my health - and that I don't miss it at all. When Catherine DeLaura tried to hold faculty dinners at places like "The Olive Garden" and "Outback Steakhouse" I never went.